4th Grade News

January 17, 2025

We're having a great 4th grade year!

Contact information:

Ms. Amy - Science/Social Studies - julia.amy@gcisd.net

Mrs. Castro - Math - heather.castro@gcisd.net

Mrs. Kelly - ELA - kelly.abramowich@gcisd.net

4th Grade Daily Schedule

7:40 am - Announcements

7:45 am - Block 1

9:25 am - GatorAID / Snack

9:55 am - Block 2 Start

10:30 am - Specials

11:15 am - Recess

11:45 am - Lunch

12:15 pm - Block 2 Continued

1:20 pm - Block 3

3:00 pm - Dismissal

Interim Testing

Beginning next week, interim testing will begin (practice STAAR). Please be sure that your child has had a good night's sleep, eats breakfast, has a snack, and has a charged device when they come to school along with their charger (just in case) and headphones. The dates of testing are below:

Wednesday 1/22 - Reading/Language Arts Interim Assessment
Tuesday 1/28 - Math Interim Assessment

If you are able to send in a bag of mints that we can pass out during testing that would be appreciated!

Baby Pictures Needed

We have a Valentines Party Activity called "Guess That Baby" where students will get to see baby pictures of their classmates and they try to guess who it is. We need your help by sending in a cute digital baby picture. Pictures where your child is between the ages of 6 months-2 years work great. We will display the baby pictures in a slideshow during our Valentines Party on February 13th. Please email the picture to your child's homeroom teacher by Friday, February 7th. Thank you in advance for your help!

ELAR

Next Week: Module 6 Week 2

Reading: Next week in reading we will read an informational text, "Weird and Wondrous Rocks" and look at text structure. We will also read a poem, "Nature's Wonders" and discuss figurative language and author's craft.

Writing: We are working on Extended Constructed Response Writing. Students will be able to read a prompt and answer the question using Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning.

Grammar: Adverbs

*Reading Interim (Practice STAAR) - Wednesday, January 22nd

*Module 6 Assessment - Friday, January 31st

Math

Next Week: We have been working on using strip diagrams and equations to represent unknown numbers.

Please try and work on multiplication facts at home. Having those memorized helps multiplying multi-digit numbers and division.

Unit 5 Assessment - January 24

Science

This Week : We introduced our next unit "Sun, Moon, and Earth Systems". We mapped the monthly weather/climate data in our region over the seasons and compared that to the amount of daylight by month to notice a pattern. If you would like to follow along with your students learning we are on Chapter 8 (pages 262-284) of the McGraw-Hill online textbook.

Next Week : We will move from Earth to space and discover the moon and it's phases. Students will learn why the moon looks like it changes shape daily and will conduct an experiment to demonstrate this phenomena.

Social Studies

This Week : We learned about Texas's local and state governments, why we have them, and how they work. We "met" the four US Presidents who are from Texas (Bush Sr. and Jr., Johnson, and Eisenhower) and learned about voting and elections. Students also completed an assignment on the roles of branches of government.

Next Week : We will learn about important documents in Texas history. These will include treaties, charters, constitutions, and the declaration of independence. We will complete an assignment analyzing Texas's state constitution.

Classroom Items needed:

Pencils

Highlighters (ELA)

Eraser Caps

Mints (to hand out during interims/testing)

Upcoming Events

Jan 20th - NO SCHOOL - MLK Jr. Day

Jan 22nd - Reading Interim STAAR (Practice STAAR)

Jan 28th - Math Interim STAAR (Practice STAAR)

Jan 31st - 100th Day of School!

Feb 4th - Spring and Class Picture Day

Feb 7th - Spirit Day and Pep Rally